Just back from the Scottish Take Over 4. This is the second event I’ve been to up in Elgin, and it didn’t disappoint. I went up with a couple of friends and we recorded our usual 40k Road Trip for the podcast. You[ll hear it shortly no doubt. These are the more detailed bat reps, and some thoughts on how my list performed.

I took the same list as I took to Rapid Fire the Weekend before. For convenience it was

Shadowseer

Troupe Master (Fusion and Kiss)

Troupe, 5 Players, 4 Fusion Pistols, 4 Caresses.

Troupe, 5 Players, 4 Fusion Pistols, 4 Caresses.

Troupe, 5 Players, 4 Fusion Pistols, 4 Caresses.

Troupe, 5 Players, 4 Fusion Pistols, 4 Caresses.

Solitaire

6 Skyweavers, Haywire Cannons, Zephyr Glaives

4 Starweavers

Archon

Ravager, 3 Disintegrator Cannons

Ravager, 3 Disintegrator Cannons

Ravager, 3 Disintegrator Cannons

Game 1

I knew who I was playing game 1, and I was worried. I played my opponent before at STO 3. Then he was running mostly Drukhari, with some added Ynarri. I was playing my Blood Angles. It was a great game, close fought with my opponent taking the win. This time he had swapped the Ynarri detachment out for some Skywires and 5 Talos Pain Engine. So his list was a Drukhari Battalion with 2 Archons, 3 units of Kabalites, 2 in Venoms and one in a Raider with an Archon, and 2 Ravagers. A Spearhead of Urien and 5 Talos, and an Outrider detachment of Harlies with 9 Skywires, a Shadowseer and a Death Jester.

It was a weird match up as we each had units that countered the others Strengths …. except the Talos. Not sure what I was going to do about them!

We rolled hammer and Anvil deployment. Slightly off centre to the right of the board was a large hill that would block los for my Starweavers. My opponent deployed his Talosto the left of the terrain piece, and he looked like he would run them into the centre of the board. That would allow me to take my Skywires and Starweavers up the right flank into the rest of his army, avoiding the Talos, . So I deployed the Ravagers centrally, and most everything else over on the right. My opponent got first turn.I used the redeploy stratagem to move the Shadowseer’s Starweaver (which had been on the left flank, so as my plan wasn’t too obvious), to the right, ready to cast Twilight Pathways on the bikes. He moved his Talos as expected, into the middle of the board. I moved all the Starweavers over to the right flank, and moved up the bikes, jumping out the Shadowseer to cast Twilight Pathways. The idea was to double move them, shoot one Ravager, and assault the other. However, the Shadowseer failed to cast TP (she rolled a 3), and I was only able to take a few wound off one Ravager. In other news all my Ravagers combined to kill one Talos … and that was the last time I shot at them all game.

Long story short, the plan worked. The Bikes survived return shooting and got “in” in my turn 2. I followed up with the rest of the Starweavers, and managed to win a tight game, while avoiding all the Talos. Shout out to the Shadowseer who was clearly embarrassed when she failed TP, and was a legend for the rest of the game with Smite and Shards of Light, followed up by her Grenade Launcher. On the other hand, the Solitaire whiffed horribly (again!).

A low scoring win 15 – 11.

Game 2

Against Knights. A Castellan and 3 other’s of various designations (no idea what they’re called). There wasn’t really enough los blocking terrain to hide much more than my bikes, so I deployed further up (we were using Vanguard Strike), so I could close the distance more quickly, and prayed for first turn ….. which I didn’t get!

I’ve never lost so much of this army in one turn of shooting. He killed 2 Ravagers and a Starweaver, leaving another ‘weaver on 2 wounds. In my turn I zoomed up the bikes, hopped out the Shadowseer who proceeded to fail Twilight Pathways again! I managed to get one Starweaver into Fusion range and took a few wounds off one of the Knights. I moved up with everything else.

In turn 2, he killed the remaining Ravager and all but one Starweaver, who hung on with a hand full of wounds. Things were looking pretty bleak, with all 4 Knights still on the table, and most of my Starweavers dead. However, because I had moved up, all the Players were still running around with their Fusion Pistols, and he was unable to make much of a dent in the bikes. So, throwing caution to the I moved up again, fired a bunch of Fusion Pistols and assaulted all 3 Knights. Because I had a Troupe Master in the mix, my players were wounding Knights on 5s with a re-roll, and the Bikes on 6 with a re-roll. With Fusion Pistols, Haywire Cannons, Caresses and some Zephyr Glaives I managed to kill 2 Knights, and bring the 3rd one down to 3 wounds. But I also managed to lock it in combat with the bikes.

With everything else hiding, there wasn’t much for the Castellan to shoot at. The bikes killed the Knight they were in combat with in my opponents turn (I used “Agents of Vet” to stop a re-roll to try and blow the knight up on a 4!), and then moved over to harass the Castellan until the end of the game.

This was a match up I wasn’t looking forward to. The Riptides had Velocity trackers, and the Tiger Shark is BS2+. Together they put out a horrible amount of fire power. If I went first, I had a chance, or if there was enough los terrain, but other than that….!

We rolled up “pointy dawn of war” and I deployed the bikes on the right flank behind some los blocking terrain. He deployed the Tiger Sharks over on the opposite side of the board. I then deployed my Starweavers centrally, behind more los blocking terrain (it was a good board). Crucially I had the Shadowseer in her Starweaver here. My opponent castled up in a ruin in the centre of the board opposite me.

I got first turn! Time to assault the Castle.

So the Shadowseer hopped out her ‘weaver and sauntered up the board behind some los blocking terrain in the middle of the table. My bikes moved diagonally across the board heading for Tiger Sharks, waiting for a speed boost from the Shadowseer. The Solitaire blitzed across to within about 1” of the Tau Castle. The other Starweavers advanced across the board, ready for a turn 2 Fusion fest. The plan was to Twilight Pathway the bikes over to shoot a Tiger Shark, and combine them with the Ravagers to kill it. I would then assault some of the little characters with the Bikes. My opponent had left them a little exposed at the side of his castle. I had a Starweaver full of Fusion that I could Fire and Fade into Fusion range of the Tiger Shark, if I had to.

It worked like a charm. A combination of Ravagers and Bikes killed one Tiger Shark, which blew up and dealt a bunch of mortal wounds to my opponents army (I also lost a bike in the explosion). The Solitaire manged to weave his way into the castle and “tag” 3 units of Fire Warriors and a Riptide (he had the Starmist Raiment, so couldn’t be overwatched), limiting overwatch on the bikes. The bikes made their charge into the characters and killed 3 of them. The Solitaire killed a unit of Fire Warriors.

In my opponents first turn he killed nothing! He did whittle the bikes down to 1 model, but did not kill a unit. It was looking like a tabling on turn 3 or 4.

But then Cegorach laughed!

I have 18 Fusion Pistols in my army. Over the course of the next 4 battle rounds they did a grand total of 4 points of damage. In turn 3 I fired all 3 Ravagers at a Tiger Shark on 4 wounds…..and failed to kill it. In turn 4 I used Smite, Shard of Light, a Ravager, 3 Fusion Pistols and a troupe on the charge to try and kill a Riptide on 1 wound ….. and failed to kill it. I couldn’t hit anything, and when I did I couldn’t wound it, and when I did wound it, my opponent made his 5++ saves. Even to the extend of using a command point to re-roll a failed 5++, to make it on the re-roll.

I was tabled on turn 5.

“Sigh”!

Gane 4

So, next day having drowned my sorrows, I’m facing Orks (not the new codex, thankfully). Warboss on a bike, a Weird Boy, a bunch of Boyz, 9 Mega Nobz, 3 Dakka Jets, a Gorkanaut, a Morkanautand some grot guns.

Not much to tell here. I got turn one and killed stuff. He used Da Jump to jump the Megnobz forward and killed stuff, and then I killed everything else. Orks really need their new ‘dex.

Big win.

Game 5

So although I’m on 3 wins and a loss, my wins are relatively modest ones. There’s one person on 4 wins, and 2 on 3 wins and a draw. I’m on table 4, but a big win, and some failure above me might just see me onto the podium.

I’m playing Custodes. Valores, a Shield Captain on a Bike, the guy with the -1 to hit banner, 3 Units of the footslogging guys with Storm Shields, a unit of 3 terminators, and a 7 man Bike Unit. Not your typical list, but a difficult list to win points against. Because each unit is so hard to kill it’s easy for them to get kill more, and hard for me to get it, and it’s easy just sit the troops on Objectives. Combine that with the bikes throwing billions of bullets at stuff, and it’s tricky.

We roll Hammer and Anvil, and deploy conservatively. My Ravagers outrange him so he has to come to me,. There is no point in me moving up too aggressively as his bikes need to move into 12” range for maximum effect. He sees this however, and reserves the bikes. I also reserve my bikes as they are of minimal use this game. However, I took Behind Enemy Lines and thought that a unit of bikes in his back field would be just the thing to get that.

He gets first turn, but nothing much happens turn one. I move up some Starweavers to threaten his deployment zone, but I don’t want to move them up too far, as I’ve no idea where his bikes are coming in, and I’ll need all the Fusion Pistols I can muster to deal with them.

On his turn 2 he has a decision to make – does he play conservatively and bring the bikes down in his deployment zone, playing a defensive game, or does he deep strike them into my deployment zone and play more aggressively. However, he has the same problem, my Ravagers outrange him and if he brings the bikes down in his deployment zone I can stay back, kill stuff with the Ravagers, and bring my Skywires in to take more points with Behind Enemy Lines. So he brings in the bikes in my deployment zone to threaten my Ravagers and a Starweaver. He fires a bazillion shots at a Starweaver and kills it, and another bazillion shots at a Ravager and only puts 4 wounds on it. He then fails a 9” charge…..!

In my turn alter Starweavers reverse thrust and bring as many Fusion Pistols into range of the Bikes as possible. A combination of Smite, Shards of Light, Mirror of Minds, Hallucinogen Grenade Launchers, Disintegrator Cannons, Fusion Pistols, Shuriken Cannons and plasma grenades kills all the bikes in one turn of shooting.

With all the bikes dead, it’s pretty much game over. It’s not whether I win, but how much I win by. I managed to take 29 points from the game. OK, but not quite good enough to get onto the podium. I came 5th, within 4 points of 4th, and within 10 of third!!

But I won best painted army!

I was happy to go 4-1, but a bit disappointed that I didn’t get a little higher up the rankings.

Next weekend I’m off to The Freedom GT in Stirling. I’ve changed my list a little by dropping one Troupe and their ‘weaver, for 4 more haywire bikes and a Troupe Master. I”m expecting a lot of Knights!